Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Mollymop5

Had a little chuckle the other day which I thought I'd share.My dd who is 5 attends forest school with the rest of her classmates.She's been going a few weeks now and loves the outdoors.She's always the dirtiest back to school.

Last week she brought home a branch which had leaves attatched with vine and pinecones and other forest finds.I told her it was beautiful and hung it up in the kitchen.
She said to me," you know what mum, my teacher said it's a mobile.Isn't she silly it doesn't even look like a phone ". :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

andromache_2

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

My parents let me take the train to the South of France when I was 16 to stay with a penpal we had never met - I can't believe this was all okay. I struggle to let my kids go to the corner shop.

lol, I've done this quite a bit... I think that was OK because it was 'educational' :rotfl: though the parents still don't know about the motorbiking and hitchhiking and other such things done while on exchanges which they'd probably disapprove of!

Speaking of frugal holidays, I had a great 10 days in Prague last summer which cost me the grand total of £150... I got a good deal on flights but my dad agreed to pay for them if I did a day's admin/typing work for him and accommodation was some university halls which were empty during the summer and which could be had for a fiver a night... the rest of the money went on boat trips and sightseeing and food and alcohol :cool: TBH though Nyk, although the uni halls were great value, you might want to set your sights a smidge higher as they weren't exactly luxe :rotfl:

sophiesmum_2

nykmedia wrote: »

I had to scroll back a couple of pages to see what I had missed!
Bails and Lynda both participating in romance stakes! :beer: How could I have missed those posts!

Back in the old days, when I was a lass... violins please... we used to go onto the building site and ask the workmen for their empty bottles so we could take them to the shop and claim the cash to swap for sweets Then we saved enough to buy post office savings stamp (they were 10p each back then) and when you saved a full book, it was worth £1 :eek: I can still remember blowing the whole lot on sweets and easter eggs and hiding them in the 'den' beneath a fallen tree. :rotfl: Remember Anglo Bubbly's - 3 for 1p In fact, remember when Golden Wonder crisps were sixpence? (2.5p in 'new' money) :rotfl: And DS pays 10 shillings for a packet in the pub now!
Can things really keep increasing in value? Won't they need to do another one of those currency decrease thingies soon? Or will crisps really be £10 per pack by the year 2050?

I remember national savings stamps:D we used to save them up for our holiday spends. Anyone remember green shield stamps, or those football coins you used to get free with petrol, not to mention smurfs.:D Showing my age now:rotfl:

Frugaldom

SMURFS! I remember the Smurf song and the Wombling song. I can't remember the coins but I do recall the Green Shield stamps and the Embassy coupons that my gran used to collect. Oh, now that I come to think of it I got my first PAYG mobile phone with cigarette coupons! Now I know why I really quit! They stopped doing the coupons!! :rotfl:

I've just spent about half an hour trying to update my signature trying to fit all my challenges into the space and have lost the day of the year number, must try again.

MrDT

nykmedia wrote: »

Is anyone having a frugal holiday this year? I'd love to get my passport renewed and take advantage of things like cheap flights and cheap accommodation but all my friends are now wives, parents and grand parents, so it's impossible to have spontaneous girly trips. The single ones I know aren't well enough to travel long distances.

I certainly hope I will be! It shouldn't take me over my 4k for the year budget either

Managed to build a holiday (seperate flights and hotels, includes all taxes etc) for 4 in Magaluf for 8 nights in the summer for the princely sum of £868.98, or £217.25 each (excludes food, drink, and travel insurance). Might even be able to better that with a bit of effort. Problem is, I think there'll likely be five of us going, and that's a dodgy number, makes things far more expensive per person. Maybe I need to make some new friends so we can bump the numbers up to eight

I'm looking to get a really good deal on the holiday, but will put aside a fair amount of money that's "fair game" for using up when we're there. Any moneysaving will be done ahead of time, I'm well prepared to 'waste' whatever I like from the holiday budget then on good food and silly amounts of drinks served in coconut halves garnished with half a rainforest and little brollies :rotfl: Don't wanna be penny pinching when I'm away as it'll be my one blowout that'll hopefully keep me sane the rest of the year :cool:

Janey51

Oooohhh Savings Stamps. I remember when we used to take a shilling (5p) to school on a Friday to buy two sixpenny (21/2p) savings stamps. Can't imagine it being allowed now.
I don't think I realised that Savings Stamps = money (I was 6 or 7) and I don't remember what happened to the books when they were full.

bails

Ha ha, loving all the stories of hair-raising activities! We used to do similar sort of things, now when I think of my future children I dread the thought of letting them out of my sight (but definitely, definitely will!).
Thanks for the frugal wedding tips, I'll definitely look into it on here when the time comes but I need to be asked first (still a traditionalist in some ways ) and that won't be for ages yet.
Right, I wanted to ask about soap nuts again - what do people think? I've used up my sample and I'm pretty happy with them for normal washes but think I need something else for proper dirty stuff, any suggestions? And Nyk, is £4 of the enough for a year ie how many do you get for that? Thanks.

Off for a walk in the beautiful sunshine now - I'm using the London Marathon (which I ran 8 years ago) as inspiration to try and get fitter. When I had my first personal training session at the gym the other day, she asked me what I hoped to achieve - I jokingly said 'oh you know, run a marathon again!' (she knew all about my illness) and she replied' no problem, we can make that happen'!! :doh:I don't think she quite gets it :rolleyes: But I'm a never say never kinda girl so we'll see...
Have a lovely day all; my parents are back now so they'll be coming round with their tiger photos later :j They had a fab time - now India's the place to go for a frugal hol (£2.50 accommodation, 50p for a main meal, both for 2 people!)

Prudent

nykmedia wrote: »

Is anyone having a frugal holiday this year? I'd love to get my passport renewed and take advantage of things like cheap flights and cheap accommodation but all my friends are now wives, parents and grand parents, so it's impossible to have spontaneous girly trips. The single ones I know aren't well enough to travel long distances.

I have decided to blow the budget and spend £736 taking my daughter to Majorca. She's just about to turn 16, so it might be my last holiday with her. I have made her share part of her 16th birthday pressie and bought her some Euros too. Last year though I didn't pay for any holidays as they were all wins, so I guess it balances out.

My budget is totally to pot this month as a result. I had to pay the remaining balance of £636, and buy the euros for dd and travel insurance. Also needed a new mattress as absolutely every spring can be felt on the one in the spare room and its is used sometimes by my elderly/disabled/ arthritic mum. Also had usuual school holiday extra spends on dd.

Its only half way through the month and already I have spent:
£1064.92 :eek: :eek: :eek: Which is more as I have spent in the last three months combined.

With this challenge though I am determined to include absolutely evrything other than council tax, union membership and commutiung costs. At the end of the year I will add those in too and see how much I have spent total.

mama67

nykmedia wrote: »

Checked on supermarket.co.uk and spotted far more offers in Somerfield that Tesco, so I'm off for a jaunt to see what bargains can be bagged after I've been to the posty.
Also received the despatch notification for all my seeds, so I might be able to get them sown before next weekend at this rate

Doodle pip, fellow frugalites. I'll update my signature with today's damage as soon as I get back.

Nyk where do you get Somerfield offers from?

Frugaldom

mama67 wrote: »

Nyk where do you get Somerfield offers from?

They update the offers weekly online at www.somerfield.co.uk and you can sign up for their newsletters if you don't get the offers leaflet through the door. I've signed up for quite a few supermarkets offers updates, including Aldi, which hasn't even been built here yet. (I can always phone mum and ask her to pop in to her local store, though.) :rotfl:

Morning everyone,
Another sunny day here and guess who didn't put a washing on last night before going to bed?! :mad: I might be rash and just put a cool wash on this morning as it still saves on the tumble dryer, I think. Who knows!

After much juggling of my forum signature, I was unable to fit in the day of the year and number of days left, even after shortening loads of things and switching it about all ways. I guess I can't have any more challenges, as there's no room at the Inn . I also realised that I hadn't recorded my charity fundraising efforts and had that to squeeze in. My aim is to raise £500 this year via the charity auctions. Last year I only made it to £404, I think, but made up for it by purchasing quite a few items from charity shops. Must try harder this year

Off to stick the washing maching on as it looks absolutely glorious outside. Then I have a trip to the postie (work related) and a pile of work to catch up with before tax return can be submitted. No doubt I'll be back here soon, though, I usually have the forums open in the background. :rotfl: